We present 11 pedigrees in which a propositus with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome had first or second-degree relatives with obsessive-compulsive behaviour or agoraphobia with panic attacks, but only partially expressed the TS gene (i.e. had only motor tics or vocal tics, or neither). Of 90 females over the age of 18 presenting with TS, or with motor or vocal tics alone, nine had severe agoraphobia with panic attacks. There may be genetic subtypes of both obsessive-compulsive disorder and agoraphobia with panic attacks that are due to partial expression of the TS gene.

The importance of personality in determining the likelihood and form of psychiatric and psychosomatic disease is recognized, but relatively little attention has been paid to the intimate personal relationships of adults which both express and to some extent modify their personalities. The neglect of this field in psychiatry has been underlined recently by Post and Wardle (1962) and by Kreitman (1964).

The duration of standardised overbreathing required to produce slow wave activity in the EEG during different phases of the menstrual cycle has been studied, and changes in carbon dioxide sensitivity of the respiratory system. Normal subjects developed slow waves more quickly and had more sensitive CO2 responses during the premenstrual/menstrual phases. This may be a factor contributing to premenstrual tension.

The discovery that tricyclic antidepressants blocked the re-uptake of both noradrenaline and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) was a significant step on the road to the development of the monoamine hypotheses of depression (Healy, 1987). The subsequent demonstration that the de-aminated metabolites of amitriptyline and imipramine, nortriptyline and desipramine, were antidepressants tilted the balance toward noradrenaline as the pertinent neurotransmitter, as these latter drugs were clearly inhibitors of noradrenergic rather than 5-HT uptake.

Twenty-one schizophrenic patients from a depot injection clinic with frequent hospital admissions (relapsers) and 28 who had remained well for 18 months (non-relapsers) were compared using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Influential Relationships Questionnaire (IRQ), a modified version of the PBI. The scales measured patients' past and present representations of significant others, respectively. Results indicated that only present representations of significant others differentiated relapsers from non-relapsers.

Subjects were followed up for a 9 month period. The readmitted (n = 8) and the non-readmitted (n = 41) groups were found to be different on the maternal care scales of the PBI and four of the six scales of the IRQ. The perceived attitudes of mothers of non-relapsers and non-readmitted patients tended to improve over time. The importance of the state-trait distinction of perceived attitudes in relation to re-admission to hospital is discussed.

The Present State Examination was conducted upon 328 recently admitted psychotic patients, of whom 23 were later found to have underlying organic illness. The phenomenology in these 23 was compared with that of 92 matching controls drawn from the parent sample who conformed to DSM-III criteria for schizophrenia, mania and depression. Few significant differences were present and there was considerable overlap between the diagnostic groups.

A prospective study of male in-patients over 55 years old who met Feighner criteria for non-bipolar depression was performed to determine if a previous history of alcoholism significantly influenced treatment or response to treatment. Among 58 subjects with complete follow-up information, the 16 who had a history of alcoholism had a presentation at index which differed from that of the non-alcoholics, and on follow-up they clearly had more chronic illness. This elderly sample with alcoholism resembles ‘neurotic-reactive’ depressives described in younger samples, and supports a past history of alcoholism as being a risk factor for chronicity of depression on follow-up in the elderly population.

This paper details three case reports that suggest that pathological gambling activity may have been adversely modified following treatment for psychosis with the antipsychotic aripiprazole. These reports are discussed in the context of previous observations of the potential impact of aripiprazole on impulse control and the implications such observations could have for clinical practice and future research.

Recent reports that some influenza epidemics may be followed by a transient increase in the births of schizophrenic patients have led to the hypothesis that maternal viral infections contribute to the aetiology of schizophrenia. It is well known that respiratory viral infections are frequently brought into the home by young children. We tested the predictions that the risk of schizophrenia is decreased in first-born children, and increased in individuals who had siblings of a young age while in utero, using data from a Swedish family study. Our results are consistent with these predictions. In particular, having siblings three to four years older was associated with a significantly increased risk of schizophrenia, even after allowing for birth order, sibship size, and other potential confounders. If replicated, these results provide indirect support for the maternal viral infection hypothesis, although there are alternative explanations.

Although numerous instances of the surprising efficacy of placebos in a wide variety of conditions have been reported lately, little has yet been done towards providing an explanation of the occurrence of placebo reactions in terms of psychology. In what follows, the main findings concerning placebos will first be described, and then an attempt made to relate them to psychological theory. Even if this attempt is premature, it may succeed in showing the need for further work and in suggesting what directions this might take.

Since Wolpe (1958) developed the idea of psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition, systematic desensitization has emerged as an effective method of treatment in phobic states. There exists, however, a group of phobias which cannot be effectively treated with these techniques. These include fears of death, illness, harming other people, etc., and have been recognized by other authors as a separate group by themselves (Marks et al., 1969; Marks, 1969, 1970): phobias of internal stimuli. The search for a suitable method to treat these cases led us to use the thought stopping procedures described by Wolpe and Lazarus (1966, p. 132). There has been a notable lack of literature concerning this method, although Wolpe refers to J. A. Bain who used this technique in 1928.

Restless legs syndrome was observed in three patients receiving mianserin. The symptoms resolved when the treatment was discontinued or reduced.

This paper presents some of the more important results of a factor analysis of the mental state ratings made as part of the United States–United Kingdom Diagnostic Project's cross-national study. The project was organized in order to help account for the large differences between the two countries in the admission rates for schizophrenia and for the affective disorders (see Kramer, 1969, and Zubin, 1969). The major results of the study have been reported by Cooper, Kendell et al. (1969), Gurland et al. (1969), Cooper (1970), and Cooper, Kendell, Gurland et al. (1972).

Three patients with Kleine–Levin syndrome had evidence of interepisodic organic brain dysfunction. This is counter to earlier views that the disorder is benign.